You've got to be kidding me
by Karen Hardy
Summary: Frank reflects on how his family gets into these kind of situations. (Rewritten)


Frank's POV

You've got to be kidding. Here I was, holding my dying thirteen year old sister in my arms. Only five minutes earlier we had been laughing and talking and joking around. Now she had a bullet in her, dangerously close to her heart.

"Karen? Can you hear me?" Joe asked, the fear in his voice easy to recognize from his shaky tone.

His words woke me from my stupor, though this was the third time he had asked.

"I don't think so," I told him quietly.

"Well, until she wakes up I'm not going to stop." He snapped.

I tried to think of how we had gotten here in only five minutes.

 **Flashback**

"Catch me if you can!" Karen yelled. She was running down the street to the ice cream parlor with us at her heels, her dark brown hair flapping behind her.

"We will!" I called back, "Come on Joe!"

"On my way! We'll get you sis, and when we do you'll owe us ice cream!"

"Fat chance!" she teased, "Actions speak louder than," she paused, "Joe!"

Karen made it there first, so we had to pay. Joe opened the door, allowing Karen to step inside. I followed, and Joe closed the door behind us. This was our favorite place to come. The parlor was themed around the 1950's and the waitresses went around on roller skates. We took a booth in the corner and waited for someone to come for their orders.

"One mint fudge sundae please." Karen told the waitress.

"Will that be all?"

"No," Joe said, "I'll take a chocolate milkshake."

"Okay then," the waitress stated with a smile, "That'll be about five minutes."

I smiled back and nodded.

"So," Karen began while eating her sundae, "What does that bring the score to? You one me one thousand?"

"Fat chance," Joe laughed imitating her from earlier.

I liked spending time with my siblings. The banter was highly enjoyable. We continued to make small talk until our desserts came, but at that point the conversation turned toward our most recent case.

"Any new leads with the case?" Karen asked.

"Yeah, we found a link. All the kidnapped girls were around thirteen or fourteen, had brown hair, brown or hazel eyes, a lithe frame-" I paused upon seeing my sister's deathly pale face, "Karen?"

Realization struck. Karen, my very own sister, met all of the features I'd just listed. How could I have missed it? How could Joe and I both have missed it?

"That's not funny, Frank." Karen said, her voice hard, seriousness replacing previous laughter.

"No joke sis," Joe answered for me, his voice wavering.

"Stop dragging it on Joe." Karen spat, "I said it wasn't funny." She sighed, pushing away her half eaten ice cream. "Let's go."

She'd lost her appetite, but niether of us could blame her. I decided not to push it.

"Okay." I agreed, trying to sound nonchalant.

I set a few bills on the table, we'd been to that particular parlor enough times to know what our usual orders cost. As we walked out, I took note of the obvious change in Karen's attitude. She was extremely downcast; but who wouldn't be after that kind of a revelation?

Joe spared a glance at her. "Do you wanna... talk about it?" He asked.

"Not really." She replied hotly.

"Okay." He sighed, dropping the subject.

Karen quickened her pace, a bodily signal we'd learned was an indication she wanted space. Joe and I allowed her to gain a few feet on us, hoping that would be enough room for her to cool off. She passed by an alleyway ahead of us and we watched in surprise and horror as a pair of strong arms reached out and pulled her into it. We ran forward, turning the corner of the alley. Karen looked so small compared to her captor, like a fat cat holding a mouse in it's paws.

"Put me down!" Karen screamed, thrashing with all the might she could muster.

Joe and I cried out in protest and got ready to advance on the man, but we paused when he pulled a pistol from his pocket. We were lucky Karen noticed how getting out the gun had made him loosen his grip on her. She waited a moment, still as stone, then she dug her elbow deep into his ribs and ran to us.

"You dumb kids." The man growled angrily. He opened fire and ran, Joe and I dodging the shots intended for us, but watching in terror as Karen took hers and went down.

 **End Flashback**

Sirens brought me back to the present as Karen was being loaded into an ambulance. Joe and I were told we would have to go to the hospital myself, as we weren't allowed to ride in the ambulance.

"Come on Joe," I yelled, "We can meet them there."

The car ride was silent. Joe laid his hand on the armrest, tapping his fingers impatiently. He stared at the miles per hour meter, wishing we could go faster. We pulled into the parking lot and drove around for at least five minutes before we could find a place to park. When we did, we all but ran inside.

"Welcome to Bayport City Hospital, how may I help you?" The receptionist asked us when we got to the desk.

"We're here to see Karen Hardy." I told her, trying to stay calm and reign in my heavy breathing.

The woman smiled and gave us the room number. I nodded and we thanked her, heading to the elevator to get room 325.

Once I was standing at my sister's bedside I inwardly slapped myself. How could I have been so stupid! I should have thought about it earlier. Karen met all of the kidnapped girls' description. I was distraught.

"Frank..." Joe began, his eyes searching mine. "I know you're upset, but you can't..." He sighed. "Just… Don't beat yourself up. The only person at fault is the one who pulled the trigger."

* * *

 ***Time Skip***

It had been eleven days. As had become our daily routine, we were visiting Karen in the hospital again. I sat by her side, one hand in hers, the other running through her dark chocolate colored locks, a bittersweet smile on my face. The door creaked open quietly as Joe walked in.

"You wanna switch off so you can get something to eat?" He asked me.

I took one last look at Karen's sleeping face and sighed heavily. All the waiting in the world was no use if she wouldn't wake up. I shook my left hand free of her hair and rose, my other hand still entwined with hers. As my hand started sliding gently out of hers, her grip tightened. She shook her head gently and groaned. Her hazel-brown eyes fluttered open slowly, and she groaned again.

She blinked a few times, her eyes not quite adjusting to the massive affront of light.

"Where am I?"

Joe and I went teary eyed. Sharing a knowing glance, he and I smiled. We had never lost hope. Even when Aunt Gertrude had come in, bragging about how she knew that this was going to happen, how this was why girls shouldn't be in 'that line of work', and that dad should have insisted Karen stay out of it, they still had maintained the hope that Karen would be fine.

"You're in the hospital sis." Joe choked out, his ecstatic expression, enough to say anything else that needed to be said. "But don't worry. You're going to be okay."

It was finally over. It would finally be okay again.


End file.
